Denver, CO — Later this afternoon, executives from bluWave Airlines and ST Aerospace are expected to give a press release on the outsourcing of the low-cost carrier’s maintenance, repairs, and overhauls (MRO) with the Singapore-based firm [ST Aerospace] in San Antonio, TX. The airline hasn’t kept quiet the fact that its service agreements with Boeing are set to expire near the end of 2013, and it doesn’t come as a surprise that a company like ST Aerospace would jump on this opportunity.

Although it is unclear which specific product the airline is interested in, sources say that the airline will be laying off a “decent chunk” of mechanics by the end of the year, eluding to a classic labor-management “fire-pit” scenario in Henderson, NV–the airline’s headquarters.

“We never know what [the executives] are up to,” Hank Finley, chief mechanic at the airline’s maintenance facility in Las Vegas told reporters. “But they earned our loyalty when they managed to bring us out of bankruptcy without laying off any of my guys here at McCarran [in 2011].”

bluWave filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada in January 2011 and managed to get back into the market within a year. However, despite a short turnaround, promising earnings, and steadily increasing performance, the company has failed to show any signs of significant expansion post the addition of San Antonio and Austin to the firm’s route structure in July. A source close to the airline’s management team in Henderson told us Continue reading →